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Blood of a Fae #1
Queen of Roses
A cast-off princess… Born into a life of duty and sacrifice, Morgan Pendragon’s destiny has never been her own. Rumored to carry the tainted blood of the fae in her veins, her birthright is stolen from her when she is a mere child. Growing up in the shadow of her brother the king, she has been promised to the goddesses when she comes of age. So, when her brother commands that she seek out a fae weapon of legendary power, Morgan seizes the chance to break free from the chains of her fate. A dangerous temptation… As she travels, Morgan finds herself drawn into a strange group of outcasts, led by a dark and enigmatic warrior whose sharp wit and fierce beauty set her heart ablaze. But while Morgan struggles to reconcile her desires with her duty, she and her new comrades discover dangers that await them beyond anything in their wildest nightmares. A slumbering kingdom awoken by blood… Believed to have vanished generations ago, a fae kingdom dreaded by mortals is ascending once more, bound to reclaim what was lost by violence and bloodshed. As the fae world, with its intricate web of lies and mysteries, is slowly revealed to Morgan, she is led to the terrible realization that the secrets she carries in her blood make her a greater threat than she could ever have imagined. The first in an action-packed new series brimming with magic, danger, morally gray characters, and spellbinding slow-burn romance, Queen of Roses is perfect for fans of Holly Black, Jennifer L. Armentrout, and Sarah J. Maas.
Author's This upper YA/NA series features mature situations and adult language, with a slow burn romance that gradually builds to a satisfying spice that intensifies with each book. Don't be fooled by the tame beginning, be prepared for the steamy ride ahead. This book has multiple TW/CWs. Please check the book's trigger warning page in the table of contents for more information.
Author's This upper YA/NA series features mature situations and adult language, with a slow burn romance that gradually builds to a satisfying spice that intensifies with each book. Don't be fooled by the tame beginning, be prepared for the steamy ride ahead. This book has multiple TW/CWs. Please check the book's trigger warning page in the table of contents for more information.
359 pages, Paperback
First published April 15, 2023
9950 people are currently reading
59010 people want to read
About the author
Briar Boleyn
13 books4,606 followers*** I am most active on Instagram!
Please Note: Goodreads won't let me follow any more people, but please feel free to add me as a friend! :) ***
Briar Boleyn is the New York Times, Sunday Times, and USA Today bestselling fantasy romance author of the Bloodwing Academy and the Blood of a Fae series. Briar once wrote scholarly papers on Dumbledore, Dragon Age, and King Arthur before finally realizing she could create her own worlds where all three might coexist–with significantly more kissing. After wandering through English literature departments at four universities across Canada, she took a detour to teach in the Arctic, where her students would sometimes run out of class to chase polar bears. When not raising fictional dragons from the dead, Briar enjoys reading all types of sci-fi and fantasy, cultivating an unhealthy Disney World obsession, and playing RPG video games. She has written fourteen historical romance novels as Fenna Edgewood.
Please Note: Goodreads won't let me follow any more people, but please feel free to add me as a friend! :) ***
Briar Boleyn is the New York Times, Sunday Times, and USA Today bestselling fantasy romance author of the Bloodwing Academy and the Blood of a Fae series. Briar once wrote scholarly papers on Dumbledore, Dragon Age, and King Arthur before finally realizing she could create her own worlds where all three might coexist–with significantly more kissing. After wandering through English literature departments at four universities across Canada, she took a detour to teach in the Arctic, where her students would sometimes run out of class to chase polar bears. When not raising fictional dragons from the dead, Briar enjoys reading all types of sci-fi and fantasy, cultivating an unhealthy Disney World obsession, and playing RPG video games. She has written fourteen historical romance novels as Fenna Edgewood.
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May 14, 2024DNF at 24%. I should’ve looked at the trigger warning online.
November 30, 2023
☆⋅⋆ ── 4 stars ── ⋅⋆☆
Thank you Netgalley & Starwater Press for granting me access to this book in exchange for an honest review!
Release date: april 15th 2023
TW: (domestic) abuse, death
My thoughts:
↳ This book was so so good!! I can’t wait to continue the series!
What I liked
➵ Nearly all of it. The characters were written beautifully and I loved (most of) them, and I loved travelling around Eskira with Morgan and Draven<3 The book started off quite «slow» (but also not? there was still lots of stuff happening while the worldbuilding was going on) but then once they went on their journey I flew through it and I was never bored once:)
What I didn’t like
➵ Arthur, Florian and Vesper - honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever hated characters in a book as much as I hate the three of them but that’s a good thing bc the author wrote them well lol. The only thing I really disliked was that the spicy scenes were sorta awkward and I feel like the book could’ve been fine without them (pretty sure that was on purpose though bc Morgan was supposed to be inexperienced and we’re seeing it from her POV).
The main characters
Morgan
➵ I absolutely adored Morgan! I also loved her friends Lancelet and Galahad and her brother Kaye (I purpesfully excluded Arthur bc I despised him) and their relationship<33 Morgan has been through a LOT but she refused to let it break her and I truly admired how strong she was despite all of it, I also love how she seemed to find herself more and more throughout the book🥹
Kairos Draven
➵ the ultimate love interest. He was caring & sweet but he was also a complete badass whenever they were in danger. Also he crossed off the protective love interest boxes (including «who did this to you?» and «touch her and..» and generally being protective of her) which def gives him extra points imo :’)
Sypnosis
A doomed love, a dangerous mission, and a kingdom on the brink of war...
A cast-off princess…
Born into a life of duty and sacrifice, Morgan Pendragon’s destiny has never been her own. Rumored to carry the tainted blood of the fae in her veins, her birthright is stolen from her when she is a mere child. Growing up in the shadow of her brother the king, she has been promised to the goddesses when she comes of age. So, when her brother commands that she seek out a fae weapon of legendary power, Morgan seizes the chance to break free from the chains of her fate.
A dangerous temptation…
As she travels, Morgan finds herself drawn into a strange group of outcasts, led by a dark and enigmatic warrior whose sharp wit and fierce beauty set her heart ablaze. But while Morgan struggles to reconcile her desires with her duty, she and her new comrades discover dangers that await them beyond anything in their wildest nightmares.
A slumbering kingdom awoken by blood…
Believed to have vanished generations ago, a fae kingdom dreaded by mortals is ascending once more, bound to reclaim what was lost by violence and bloodshed. As the fae world, with its intricate web of lies and mysteries, is slowly revealed to Morgan, she is led to the terrible realization that the secrets she carries in her blood make her a greater threat than she could ever have imagined
Read this if you like/tropes in the book
➵ Spicy fantasy romance
➵ Slow burn
➵ Enemies to lovers
➵ Only one bed/tent
➵ Forced proximity
➵ Guard and princess
➵ Found family/ride or die BFFs
➵ «Who did this to you?»
➵ «Touch her and...»
Quotes
➵ «How strange. I hated him at first. Perhaps a part of me still did. But one thing was certain... He was the air I breathed. I could not live without him
➵ «You’ll always have me around, won’t you?» «To pester me to death»
➵ «Are you all right? Did they hurt you?»
➵ “Not even a thank you, Princess?” he called as I strode away. “I’ll miss you, too.” I refused to give him the pleasure of another look.
➵ “Who?” I jumped. “Who did this to you?” Draven’s voice was a guttural growl. The sound of a furious animal, not a man. I shook my head mutely. “You won’t tell me? You think I won’t find out for myself?” He shook his head as if in frustration. “Morg–” My eyes widened. He tried again. “Princess. My lady.” I could see him trying to soften his voice. “Tell me so I may help you. That is all I ask.”
➵ Kaye was flying down from the head of the room towards me. He had leaped down from the raised dais where a large table had been set. “Morgan!” Kaye’s face was split in a happy grin. He hit me at full speed, nearly knocking me back into a group of nobles sitting on the bench behind us.
➵ Draven lowered his voice. “Your head. How is it? Can you continue a few more hours?” I looked up at him, then realized I had been unwittingly massaging my temples with my fingers. “I’m fine. We can continue as long as we need to.” He frowned. “You’re not fine. I saw you this morning. You could hardly mount your horse.” I had hoped no one had noticed that. «I’m fine» I said again «Stop watching me» Draven gave a growling laugh that sent shivers dancing over my skin
➵ When I awoke, I was in my tent, but I was not alone. There were arms wrapped around me. I could feel them, tight and heavy. My cheek was pressing against something rough and hard. My eyes shot open. My face was against Draven's chest.
➵ Draven was stirring again. His eyes flickered once, twice, then opened. I watched as they widened in surprise to see me. Then understanding dawned. “Good morning, Princess.” He managed to grin and yawn simultaneously, then ran a hand through his hair, touseling the black locks into a state that was wild. Wild yet appealing. I suddenly felt with every particle of my being the full awareness that I had slept wrapped in his arms. Blushing furiously, I pushed myself away, struggling to turn around in a very small space made for a single person. After some awkward rotations, I managed to face the tent flap and began to crawl out. “Ouch. Not a morning person then.”
➵ “To my recollection, I’ve never gagged a woman,” Draven said, looking thoughtful. “To your recollection!” “At least, not one who didn’t wish to be gagged.” He shot me a roguish smile and I felt my heart speed up a notch. “I will not even dignify that remark with a response though I’m sure you’re dying for me to ask,” I said, with as much poise as I could muster.
➵ When I awoke, Draven was bellowing for me to rise and shine.
➵ “I won’t kill you yet,” Draven said, emphasizing the last word. “But if you do anything to...” Vesper raised slender hands. “I know, I know. Anything to threaten your lovely companion or harm you in any way, it’s the hanging life for me.” Draven nodded tersely
➵ “We hardly know him, Morgan.”His voice was low, just loud enough for me to hear. Then he sighed and I caught him running a hand through his thick black hair. “Promise me you’ll be careful.”
Those are some of my fav quotes :)
Thank you Netgalley & Starwater Press for granting me access to this book in exchange for an honest review!
Release date: april 15th 2023
TW: (domestic) abuse, death
My thoughts:
↳ This book was so so good!! I can’t wait to continue the series!
What I liked
➵ Nearly all of it. The characters were written beautifully and I loved (most of) them, and I loved travelling around Eskira with Morgan and Draven<3 The book started off quite «slow» (but also not? there was still lots of stuff happening while the worldbuilding was going on) but then once they went on their journey I flew through it and I was never bored once:)
What I didn’t like
➵ Arthur, Florian and Vesper - honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever hated characters in a book as much as I hate the three of them but that’s a good thing bc the author wrote them well lol. The only thing I really disliked was that the spicy scenes were sorta awkward and I feel like the book could’ve been fine without them (pretty sure that was on purpose though bc Morgan was supposed to be inexperienced and we’re seeing it from her POV).
The main characters
Morgan
➵ I absolutely adored Morgan! I also loved her friends Lancelet and Galahad and her brother Kaye (I purpesfully excluded Arthur bc I despised him) and their relationship<33 Morgan has been through a LOT but she refused to let it break her and I truly admired how strong she was despite all of it, I also love how she seemed to find herself more and more throughout the book🥹
Kairos Draven
➵ the ultimate love interest. He was caring & sweet but he was also a complete badass whenever they were in danger. Also he crossed off the protective love interest boxes (including «who did this to you?» and «touch her and..» and generally being protective of her) which def gives him extra points imo :’)
Sypnosis
A doomed love, a dangerous mission, and a kingdom on the brink of war...
A cast-off princess…
Born into a life of duty and sacrifice, Morgan Pendragon’s destiny has never been her own. Rumored to carry the tainted blood of the fae in her veins, her birthright is stolen from her when she is a mere child. Growing up in the shadow of her brother the king, she has been promised to the goddesses when she comes of age. So, when her brother commands that she seek out a fae weapon of legendary power, Morgan seizes the chance to break free from the chains of her fate.
A dangerous temptation…
As she travels, Morgan finds herself drawn into a strange group of outcasts, led by a dark and enigmatic warrior whose sharp wit and fierce beauty set her heart ablaze. But while Morgan struggles to reconcile her desires with her duty, she and her new comrades discover dangers that await them beyond anything in their wildest nightmares.
A slumbering kingdom awoken by blood…
Believed to have vanished generations ago, a fae kingdom dreaded by mortals is ascending once more, bound to reclaim what was lost by violence and bloodshed. As the fae world, with its intricate web of lies and mysteries, is slowly revealed to Morgan, she is led to the terrible realization that the secrets she carries in her blood make her a greater threat than she could ever have imagined
Read this if you like/tropes in the book
➵ Spicy fantasy romance
➵ Slow burn
➵ Enemies to lovers
➵ Only one bed/tent
➵ Forced proximity
➵ Guard and princess
➵ Found family/ride or die BFFs
➵ «Who did this to you?»
➵ «Touch her and...»
Quotes
➵ «How strange. I hated him at first. Perhaps a part of me still did. But one thing was certain... He was the air I breathed. I could not live without him
➵ «You’ll always have me around, won’t you?» «To pester me to death»
➵ «Are you all right? Did they hurt you?»
➵ “Not even a thank you, Princess?” he called as I strode away. “I’ll miss you, too.” I refused to give him the pleasure of another look.
➵ “Who?” I jumped. “Who did this to you?” Draven’s voice was a guttural growl. The sound of a furious animal, not a man. I shook my head mutely. “You won’t tell me? You think I won’t find out for myself?” He shook his head as if in frustration. “Morg–” My eyes widened. He tried again. “Princess. My lady.” I could see him trying to soften his voice. “Tell me so I may help you. That is all I ask.”
➵ Kaye was flying down from the head of the room towards me. He had leaped down from the raised dais where a large table had been set. “Morgan!” Kaye’s face was split in a happy grin. He hit me at full speed, nearly knocking me back into a group of nobles sitting on the bench behind us.
➵ Draven lowered his voice. “Your head. How is it? Can you continue a few more hours?” I looked up at him, then realized I had been unwittingly massaging my temples with my fingers. “I’m fine. We can continue as long as we need to.” He frowned. “You’re not fine. I saw you this morning. You could hardly mount your horse.” I had hoped no one had noticed that. «I’m fine» I said again «Stop watching me» Draven gave a growling laugh that sent shivers dancing over my skin
➵ When I awoke, I was in my tent, but I was not alone. There were arms wrapped around me. I could feel them, tight and heavy. My cheek was pressing against something rough and hard. My eyes shot open. My face was against Draven's chest.
➵ Draven was stirring again. His eyes flickered once, twice, then opened. I watched as they widened in surprise to see me. Then understanding dawned. “Good morning, Princess.” He managed to grin and yawn simultaneously, then ran a hand through his hair, touseling the black locks into a state that was wild. Wild yet appealing. I suddenly felt with every particle of my being the full awareness that I had slept wrapped in his arms. Blushing furiously, I pushed myself away, struggling to turn around in a very small space made for a single person. After some awkward rotations, I managed to face the tent flap and began to crawl out. “Ouch. Not a morning person then.”
➵ “To my recollection, I’ve never gagged a woman,” Draven said, looking thoughtful. “To your recollection!” “At least, not one who didn’t wish to be gagged.” He shot me a roguish smile and I felt my heart speed up a notch. “I will not even dignify that remark with a response though I’m sure you’re dying for me to ask,” I said, with as much poise as I could muster.
➵ When I awoke, Draven was bellowing for me to rise and shine.
➵ “I won’t kill you yet,” Draven said, emphasizing the last word. “But if you do anything to...” Vesper raised slender hands. “I know, I know. Anything to threaten your lovely companion or harm you in any way, it’s the hanging life for me.” Draven nodded tersely
➵ “We hardly know him, Morgan.”His voice was low, just loud enough for me to hear. Then he sighed and I caught him running a hand through his thick black hair. “Promise me you’ll be careful.”
Those are some of my fav quotes :)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 20, 2023
“𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐦 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐲𝐫𝐝𝐨𝐦, 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬. 𝐘𝐨𝐮’𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞.”… something I felt for the FMC throughout the book!
𝐁𝐥𝐮𝐫𝐛
Queen of Roses follows Morgan Pendragon, who’s grown in the shadows of her brother because of the tainted fae blood in her veins. Now that her kingdom is on the brink of war, she is forced on a journey to seek out a legendary weapon that’ll save them from their doom…
𝐌𝐲 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬
This is a retelling of the Arthurian legacy but in a fae world setting, and that world-building was incredible! From the backstory to the present brutal society to the chaotic family dynamics, everything was well-written.
The descriptions of the places really brought the world to life😍 (for eg, King Arthur’s throne room filled with roses). With a captivating plot, there was never a moment where it lost the zeal and it’s said to be a dark fantasy but I didn’t find it that dark😯. Sure, there are a few moments of death and blood, but that’s the bare minimum for a fantasy book..
I’m all in for Kairos Draven!! That man was everything🤌🏼 and not only visually😉 He respected her and her decisions, and still cared for, and loved her! The small things he did for Morgan just 🫠 me. And imo, 𝐡𝐞’𝐬 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐡𝐞𝐫!!
On the other side, I found Morgan to be frustrating. It was understandable how she had this timid personality but she was too submissive. I wanted her to change but she didn’t.. plus she was so naive and sheltered, despite her thinking otherwise.
The romance was such a big disappointment for me! I hate, hate the fact that there’s a love triangle of sorts (understandable but why😩). I was looking forward to that slow-burn to ignite but it just changed its course..
And the writing style also changed to a questionnaire, with Draven and others answering and Morgan asking at every single turn. How come she being the princess doesn’t know a single thing about her world?
But I loved how it was action-packed near the end with so many twists coming our way, magic and magical creatures coming to the front (it even had zombies🧟♀️)! And that cliffhanger was just🤯 I cannot wait to read the next book..
P.S. Florian deserved what happened to him!
𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧
Overall, this was an okayish start to a series with great world-building and a captivating plot. The male MMC has my heart but the FMC needs character development. Plus, the romance is a disappointment in this but there’s an exciting anticipation for #2 because of that mind-blowing cliffhanger at the end..
𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐆𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐲, 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫, 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐫 𝐁𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐲𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞-𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰.
Follow For More: Blog • Bookstagram • Goodreads
𝐁𝐥𝐮𝐫𝐛
Queen of Roses follows Morgan Pendragon, who’s grown in the shadows of her brother because of the tainted fae blood in her veins. Now that her kingdom is on the brink of war, she is forced on a journey to seek out a legendary weapon that’ll save them from their doom…
𝐌𝐲 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬
This is a retelling of the Arthurian legacy but in a fae world setting, and that world-building was incredible! From the backstory to the present brutal society to the chaotic family dynamics, everything was well-written.
The descriptions of the places really brought the world to life😍 (for eg, King Arthur’s throne room filled with roses). With a captivating plot, there was never a moment where it lost the zeal and it’s said to be a dark fantasy but I didn’t find it that dark😯. Sure, there are a few moments of death and blood, but that’s the bare minimum for a fantasy book..
I’m all in for Kairos Draven!! That man was everything🤌🏼 and not only visually😉 He respected her and her decisions, and still cared for, and loved her! The small things he did for Morgan just 🫠 me. And imo, 𝐡𝐞’𝐬 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐡𝐞𝐫!!
On the other side, I found Morgan to be frustrating. It was understandable how she had this timid personality but she was too submissive. I wanted her to change but she didn’t.. plus she was so naive and sheltered, despite her thinking otherwise.
The romance was such a big disappointment for me! I hate, hate the fact that there’s a love triangle of sorts (understandable but why😩). I was looking forward to that slow-burn to ignite but it just changed its course..
And the writing style also changed to a questionnaire, with Draven and others answering and Morgan asking at every single turn. How come she being the princess doesn’t know a single thing about her world?
But I loved how it was action-packed near the end with so many twists coming our way, magic and magical creatures coming to the front (it even had zombies🧟♀️)! And that cliffhanger was just🤯 I cannot wait to read the next book..
P.S. Florian deserved what happened to him!
𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧
Overall, this was an okayish start to a series with great world-building and a captivating plot. The male MMC has my heart but the FMC needs character development. Plus, the romance is a disappointment in this but there’s an exciting anticipation for #2 because of that mind-blowing cliffhanger at the end..
𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐆𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐲, 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫, 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐫 𝐁𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐲𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞-𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰.
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July 7, 2025
BRB about to devour this entire series.
BECAUSE OMG IM OBSESSED.
BECAUSE OMG IM OBSESSED.
December 14, 2023
Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of Queen of Roses.
Sadly, I’m DNFing this 30% of the way in. I rarely do this (and never with ARCs) but her writing is so choppy that it’s distracting, the descriptions of rooms go on for pages and I just can’t make myself keep reading. The premise of the story is intriguing but the writing is just bad. I’ve seen comparisons to many other romantasy series that I love but I strongly disagree. This reads like a very rough first draft of someone who reads a lot of the same books I do and decided to see if she could do it, and unfortunately, it didn’t work.
Sadly, I’m DNFing this 30% of the way in. I rarely do this (and never with ARCs) but her writing is so choppy that it’s distracting, the descriptions of rooms go on for pages and I just can’t make myself keep reading. The premise of the story is intriguing but the writing is just bad. I’ve seen comparisons to many other romantasy series that I love but I strongly disagree. This reads like a very rough first draft of someone who reads a lot of the same books I do and decided to see if she could do it, and unfortunately, it didn’t work.
April 28, 2024
⋆｡𖦹°‧★finished :.. 28/4/24
[ slight spoilers ]
if i got a quarter for how many times a man does something horrible to my girl Morgan I'd have a couple hundred quarters.
✦ ⠂⠂୨୧ -> 4 stars
at first thought, i assumed it would be a basic fantasy book but bro you dont know what you're missing out on!! the entirety of this book I could relate to morgan so much, ALL the men in her life had taken advantage of her, abusing her, humiliating her, SAing her and all sorts of bullcrap. her response to this was the extremely realistic!!
the writing for this was extremely easy to read, i didn't feel like i was forcing myself to keep going because it was continuously interesting.
Kairos Draven, you have a beautiful name and all around perfect character. the rhysand to feyre, aaron to Juliette, cardan to Jude. i love you my evil assassin 💋
okay thats it! FREAKING READ THIS!!!
(please read the trigger warnings first and be kind to yourself.)
(slow burn so slow, we only have sparks, not even a fire)
⋆｡𖦹°‧★pre read :.. 23/4/24
Thank you NetGalley and publishers for the ARC 💞
I think im gonna have a bit of fun w this one, it kinda feels like acotar name wise tbh 😭😭
(putting away my hater energy)
[ slight spoilers ]
if i got a quarter for how many times a man does something horrible to my girl Morgan I'd have a couple hundred quarters.
✦ ⠂⠂୨୧ -> 4 stars
at first thought, i assumed it would be a basic fantasy book but bro you dont know what you're missing out on!! the entirety of this book I could relate to morgan so much, ALL the men in her life had taken advantage of her, abusing her, humiliating her, SAing her and all sorts of bullcrap. her response to this was the extremely realistic!!
the writing for this was extremely easy to read, i didn't feel like i was forcing myself to keep going because it was continuously interesting.
Kairos Draven, you have a beautiful name and all around perfect character. the rhysand to feyre, aaron to Juliette, cardan to Jude. i love you my evil assassin 💋
okay thats it! FREAKING READ THIS!!!
(please read the trigger warnings first and be kind to yourself.)
(slow burn so slow, we only have sparks, not even a fire)
⋆｡𖦹°‧★pre read :.. 23/4/24
Thank you NetGalley and publishers for the ARC 💞
I think im gonna have a bit of fun w this one, it kinda feels like acotar name wise tbh 😭😭
(putting away my hater energy)
April 15, 2024
a little confused but when am i not 😌
April 28, 2023
3.5 Stars
A Morgan Pendragon retelling with a fae twist.
So much potential! I like the main storyline and the fae twist, but it needs more depth, character development, and some oomph.
***Thank you to NetGalley, Briar Boleyn, and Starwater Press for graciously sending me a copy of the novel to review. As always, all thoughts are my own.***
A Morgan Pendragon retelling with a fae twist.
So much potential! I like the main storyline and the fae twist, but it needs more depth, character development, and some oomph.
***Thank you to NetGalley, Briar Boleyn, and Starwater Press for graciously sending me a copy of the novel to review. As always, all thoughts are my own.***
November 19, 2023
I was born to be a queen. But even queens could be set aside and forgotten. Or worse. Remembered but relegated to shadows.
Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice 🌶️.5/5
Tropes
🌹 Slow-burn romance
🌹 Enemies to lovers
🌹 Morally gray MMC
🌹 World Building
🌹 Epic Quest
🌹 Found family
🌹 "Who did this to you?" With a hint of Touch her and ☠️
🌹 First person POV
This book is a loose, dark, fae retelling of the story of King Arthur/Camelot and the quest for Excalibur. The writing was captivating and the world-building was done beautifully. When I read fantasy novels, I want to feel as if I have been transported to the world the author is trying to emulate and Briar did just that! I grew up reading stories of King Arthur and the tales of Excalibur; this book felt nostalgic but also as if I was reading a new story, with a new quest to embark on.
The story follows the journey of Morgan, as she treks beyond her kingdom to find the elusive sword of Excalibur for Arthur, the king, and her half-brother. During the journey, Morgan is accompanied by two guards, Kairos Draven and Ragnar Whitehorn. The story is brimming with countless twists and turns that will leave you yearning for answers. During the first half of the book, I felt Morgan was a bit too naive, simple-minded, and meek but by the end of the story, she started to find her voice. I felt a greater understanding of her behavior as the story progressed as well. Throughout the book, Morgan is faced with various conflicts and tribulations (internal and external), and the choices she made, helped shape her character and overall added to the growth arc I felt she had while reading.
From the world-building to the character development, the plot twists, and everything in between, this book had me captivated from the beginning. I cannot wait to see what else is in store for Morgan and Draven🌹
NoteThe story ends on a cliffhanger. Overall, I felt like the author did a great job at concluding the plot within the first book and the cliffhanger adds intrigue for the second book.
** I want to thank the author for allowing me to receive an ARC copy of the book for an honest review **
They say there is peace in death. But I had never known that to be the case.
Holy Three Sisters. This book was an incredible journey filled with plot twists I didn't see coming. I devoured this book and cannot wait to start the next 👀
The story of Arthur/Camelot, but make it fae and dark.
RTC - I will write a review when I am back from camping!
Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice 🌶️.5/5
Tropes
🌹 Slow-burn romance
🌹 Enemies to lovers
🌹 Morally gray MMC
🌹 World Building
🌹 Epic Quest
🌹 Found family
🌹 "Who did this to you?" With a hint of Touch her and ☠️
🌹 First person POV
This book is a loose, dark, fae retelling of the story of King Arthur/Camelot and the quest for Excalibur. The writing was captivating and the world-building was done beautifully. When I read fantasy novels, I want to feel as if I have been transported to the world the author is trying to emulate and Briar did just that! I grew up reading stories of King Arthur and the tales of Excalibur; this book felt nostalgic but also as if I was reading a new story, with a new quest to embark on.
The story follows the journey of Morgan, as she treks beyond her kingdom to find the elusive sword of Excalibur for Arthur, the king, and her half-brother. During the journey, Morgan is accompanied by two guards, Kairos Draven and Ragnar Whitehorn. The story is brimming with countless twists and turns that will leave you yearning for answers. During the first half of the book, I felt Morgan was a bit too naive, simple-minded, and meek but by the end of the story, she started to find her voice. I felt a greater understanding of her behavior as the story progressed as well. Throughout the book, Morgan is faced with various conflicts and tribulations (internal and external), and the choices she made, helped shape her character and overall added to the growth arc I felt she had while reading.
From the world-building to the character development, the plot twists, and everything in between, this book had me captivated from the beginning. I cannot wait to see what else is in store for Morgan and Draven🌹
NoteThe story ends on a cliffhanger. Overall, I felt like the author did a great job at concluding the plot within the first book and the cliffhanger adds intrigue for the second book.
** I want to thank the author for allowing me to receive an ARC copy of the book for an honest review **
They say there is peace in death. But I had never known that to be the case.
The story of Arthur/Camelot, but make it fae and dark.
RTC - I will write a review when I am back from camping!
November 3, 2023
arc copy provided in exchange for an honest review. this in no way changes my rating or review.
this was a fun romantasy, for the most part. it started off so well: i was incredibly invested, the slow-burn was really slow-burning and giving me all the feels, plus the worldbuilding and arthurian retelling was so interesting! it's rare to get arthurian retellings, especially in casual romantasy novels, so i really appreciated that aspect.
but then vesper got introduced... and i hated him. just a little (a lot). i won't spoil, but the addition of his character - while possibly necessary for the plot - irritated me a little. other than him, i adored the side characters. the platonic bonds between characters was so beautiful to watch, and i also quite liked our fmc.
i'm intrigued to see how this series continues, because this book certainly had a captivating plot. i also need to see the main couple continue to grow closer!
thank you so much to the author, publisher, and netgalley for the arc copy provided.
this was a fun romantasy, for the most part. it started off so well: i was incredibly invested, the slow-burn was really slow-burning and giving me all the feels, plus the worldbuilding and arthurian retelling was so interesting! it's rare to get arthurian retellings, especially in casual romantasy novels, so i really appreciated that aspect.
but then vesper got introduced... and i hated him. just a little (a lot). i won't spoil, but the addition of his character - while possibly necessary for the plot - irritated me a little. other than him, i adored the side characters. the platonic bonds between characters was so beautiful to watch, and i also quite liked our fmc.
i'm intrigued to see how this series continues, because this book certainly had a captivating plot. i also need to see the main couple continue to grow closer!
thank you so much to the author, publisher, and netgalley for the arc copy provided.
September 29, 2023
This is a new to me author and though not a debut author I believe this is her first book in the fantasy genre it managed to draw me so easily into a dark deadly and fascinating world. A dark fantasy read with plenty of action, intrigue and with a slow-burn romance building subtly in the background. This one is predominantly plot-driven and has some truly excellent world-building that managed to captivate me the more I read. Don’t be expecting much yet on the romance front but it’s definitely sizzling away on a slow-burn so I’m sure we will see more of this in book two.
The way the Arthurian legend has been reimagined and cleverly interwoven into a totally new direction was sublime this was Camelot and the Pendragon’s but not as you know it and though it is loosely based on the famous characters it also felt so fresh and totally different.
This is the first book in a trilogy and centres on Morgan Pendragon, because of the Fae blood that runs through her veins Morgan feels the need to prove herself constantly the differences she feels she has inherited from her mother set her apart and she tries her hardest to blend into the background not wanting to draw added attention to herself. Arthur the king and her brother is somewhat of a despot and Morgan now finds herself tasked with a dangerous quest venturing deep into a ruined Fae landscape all for a mysterious Fae relic that will prove her loyalty to the crown.
On this journey, she is accompanied by the mysterious and dangerous Draven a royal guard with a dark reputation these two manage to rub each other the wrong way from their first encounter, now thrown together along with various other individuals the two have to learn to trust each other. We have betrayals and danger and some truly unexpected reveals before everything then comes to its thrilling conclusion in a delicious cliffhanger.
This was well-written and imaginative I’m looking forward to reading the next book and finding out what comes next, especially with how we left things here. I definitely recommend reading this if you like dark imaginative fantasy worlds. I voluntarily reviewed a copy of Queen of Roses (Blood of a Fae #1)
Reviewed By Beckie Bookworm
https://www.facebook.com/beckiebookworm/
www.beckiebookworm.com
May 29, 2024
4/5⭐️
»»—— ~"War leaves no honor. Only horror." ——««
Firstly thank you to NetGalley and Starwater Press sending me this book in exchange for an honest review. All of the following thoughts and opinions will be of my own!
THE PLOT:
This book is dark fantasy romance retelling of the legend of King Arthur and His Knights on their quest for Excalibur, featuring similar names and locations but with a special spin of fae and other mythical creatures. Born into a life full of duty, cruelty and sacrifice, Morgan Pendragon has never had her own destiny or future. As she carries the blood of the fae in her veins from her mother, her royal birthright is stolen from her while she is just a child and given to her brother Arthur. Coming close to the age of service and promise to the goddesses, Morgan begins to question her whole life and who she is truly living it for. After Arthur commands that she goes on a journey to retrieve a fae weapon of legendary power, Morgan seizes the chance to break free of her fate and duties in order to live life for herself. Drawn into a band of outcasts led by a dark and captivating King's Guard, she and her new friends come across many dangers and unknown creatures waiting for them that are beyond any of their scariest nightmares.
MY THOUGHTS:
To start off this book has some darker scenes and themes, and if you have some triggers I do believe it is extremely important to locate the trigger warning list at the end of the book to see if this is right for you. I am so glad I had the chance to read this book, and this series deserves so much more praise! Both the fantasy and the romance aspects were AMAZING, and I was hooked with the compelling storytelling, world building and well rounded characters. Briar Boleyn has a way of writing that is both lyrical and hooking without being overly descriptive and flowery, it helped to paint a vivid world full of magic, power and danger. The world building was done flawlessly and contains its own unique lore, mythology, history and political struggles that adds depth and layers of complexity to the story. While the romantic relationship between the two main characters doesn't have a lot of page time within this first book, the tension is PALPABLE! This series is a SLOWWWWWW burn where the relationship builds more with each book, and if you're anything like me you'll truly enjoy this style of book. I absolutely adored the "great quest" aspect and while it does start off a little slow, the pace builds up as they go on their journey and I loved every second of the adventure! Queen of Roses does leave off on many cliffhangers that builds suspense for the following books in the series, the information and events that are revealed had me itching to get my hands on Court of Claws ASAP so be prepared! This series is perfect for those who love romantasy, dark fantasy, fae, tension, slow burn, and a very creative and unique take on King Arthur🌹
»»—— ~"War leaves no honor. Only horror." ——««
Firstly thank you to NetGalley and Starwater Press sending me this book in exchange for an honest review. All of the following thoughts and opinions will be of my own!
THE PLOT:
This book is dark fantasy romance retelling of the legend of King Arthur and His Knights on their quest for Excalibur, featuring similar names and locations but with a special spin of fae and other mythical creatures. Born into a life full of duty, cruelty and sacrifice, Morgan Pendragon has never had her own destiny or future. As she carries the blood of the fae in her veins from her mother, her royal birthright is stolen from her while she is just a child and given to her brother Arthur. Coming close to the age of service and promise to the goddesses, Morgan begins to question her whole life and who she is truly living it for. After Arthur commands that she goes on a journey to retrieve a fae weapon of legendary power, Morgan seizes the chance to break free of her fate and duties in order to live life for herself. Drawn into a band of outcasts led by a dark and captivating King's Guard, she and her new friends come across many dangers and unknown creatures waiting for them that are beyond any of their scariest nightmares.
MY THOUGHTS:
To start off this book has some darker scenes and themes, and if you have some triggers I do believe it is extremely important to locate the trigger warning list at the end of the book to see if this is right for you. I am so glad I had the chance to read this book, and this series deserves so much more praise! Both the fantasy and the romance aspects were AMAZING, and I was hooked with the compelling storytelling, world building and well rounded characters. Briar Boleyn has a way of writing that is both lyrical and hooking without being overly descriptive and flowery, it helped to paint a vivid world full of magic, power and danger. The world building was done flawlessly and contains its own unique lore, mythology, history and political struggles that adds depth and layers of complexity to the story. While the romantic relationship between the two main characters doesn't have a lot of page time within this first book, the tension is PALPABLE! This series is a SLOWWWWWW burn where the relationship builds more with each book, and if you're anything like me you'll truly enjoy this style of book. I absolutely adored the "great quest" aspect and while it does start off a little slow, the pace builds up as they go on their journey and I loved every second of the adventure! Queen of Roses does leave off on many cliffhangers that builds suspense for the following books in the series, the information and events that are revealed had me itching to get my hands on Court of Claws ASAP so be prepared! This series is perfect for those who love romantasy, dark fantasy, fae, tension, slow burn, and a very creative and unique take on King Arthur🌹
![Profile Image for Andrea ☾ [is inconsistently consistant].](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.gr-assets.com%2Fimages%2FS%2Fcompressed.photo.goodreads.com%2Fusers%2F1642113904i%2F116166019._UY200_CR2%2C0%2C200%2C200_.jpg&w=128&q=75)
March 29, 2024
3.5 ⭐️ If ACOTAR and FBAA had a baby, and it was slightly unhinged.
Edit: I wanted to leave this here as a PSA I wished I would have known before getting into this series: Although this book is not totally dark in its own, the series gets darker (and worst imo) as the books go on. This book I could easily tolerate, but the second one was soooo much darker, I almost DNF several times.
So, I'm not the biggest ACOTAR fan. Everyone knows... I'll shut up about it someday. But I couldn't make it pass the awful first introduction to a series that book continues to be. It's a through away- a waste of paper and time. Again, I have strong feelings about it. But the absolute betrayal of a plotline that book made me experience feels similar to how I think this series will unfold when it comes to timing and pacing.
I don't have that much issue with this one, though, because the author made it make sense within the characters and their arch. It also reminded me of FBAA, with the whole 'fmc is the chose one, it's just her, no one else will do', and the fact that her court given protector ends up trying to protect her over the court, which in my opinion is always fun to read. There's betrayal, heartbreak, abuse and death... It's, again, a dark and hinged version of other more popular fantasy romances. And also somehow a retelling of the stories of King Arthur of Camelot, and Merlin, and Morgan... It was a lot. Fun, but a lot.
I kind of think that there were times where the (tw:) was kind of gratuitous, as well as the her friends. I understand that the author was trying to make the villains out as obviously evil as possible, but it felt like a cheap shot at times. Then again, this is a dark fantasy romance, so I was expecting some things to go down.
The ending was sort of expected, and although I'm excited to continue reading the series, I don't know if I'll enjoy book #2 very much, unless the fmc actually starts fighting for herself a bit, and not just wishing she could and letting others do it for her. There's a lot of potential here.
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 / 5
🌶 / 5
Edit: I wanted to leave this here as a PSA I wished I would have known before getting into this series: Although this book is not totally dark in its own, the series gets darker (and worst imo) as the books go on. This book I could easily tolerate, but the second one was soooo much darker, I almost DNF several times.
So, I'm not the biggest ACOTAR fan. Everyone knows... I'll shut up about it someday. But I couldn't make it pass the awful first introduction to a series that book continues to be. It's a through away- a waste of paper and time. Again, I have strong feelings about it. But the absolute betrayal of a plotline that book made me experience feels similar to how I think this series will unfold when it comes to timing and pacing.
I don't have that much issue with this one, though, because the author made it make sense within the characters and their arch. It also reminded me of FBAA, with the whole 'fmc is the chose one, it's just her, no one else will do', and the fact that her court given protector ends up trying to protect her over the court, which in my opinion is always fun to read. There's betrayal, heartbreak, abuse and death... It's, again, a dark and hinged version of other more popular fantasy romances. And also somehow a retelling of the stories of King Arthur of Camelot, and Merlin, and Morgan... It was a lot. Fun, but a lot.
I kind of think that there were times where the (tw:) was kind of gratuitous, as well as the her friends. I understand that the author was trying to make the villains out as obviously evil as possible, but it felt like a cheap shot at times. Then again, this is a dark fantasy romance, so I was expecting some things to go down.
The ending was sort of expected, and although I'm excited to continue reading the series, I don't know if I'll enjoy book #2 very much, unless the fmc actually starts fighting for herself a bit, and not just wishing she could and letting others do it for her. There's a lot of potential here.
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 / 5
🌶 / 5
February 4, 2024
A very clear example of trying to fit your story with all the elements you want to create a certain narrative, regardless of how they fit together, creating absolute dissonance between plot, characters, worldbuilding and themes.
For example the World is a bit strange:
It seems that because of Arthur's reign, women and girls are just now being oppressed, while they usually enjoyed more freedoms, meaning....the previous king, HER ABUSIVE MURDERER DAD, was actually a feminist, yay.
And of course The Three are all women, despite the socety being patriarcal, since we don't know how religion is used to influence socety, clearly. Why would the three Godnesses entrust men rather than women with leading socety? Well who knows. And why the fuck is the godness of fate and destiny completely ignored? You'd think it's rather important, but no.
Regarding the politic's side of it, i honestly think there's a good story to be told on Arthur's side and we were stuck following the wrong sibling. Like, how did Arthur weave his way into the alliance against Lyonesse, to then be confronted with two kingdoms instead, without his ally reign AND with civil unrest? That seems like a story worth telling, not glorified "my summer-camp love triangle" (it HAS to be REALLY hot in this continent since the men sleep in the fucking open for a month and a half so...)
Plot is divided into a much too long prologue in which we see essentially one interaction with every member of the cast, with VERY little to say for any of them, then a second part with a dead snail pace journey that wasted every opportunity to create character interacions and growth and decided for the matter-of-fact easy approach every single time. It had so little to say for it's impressive lenght and the scenes where we were supposed to progress characters were so dislocated from the normal flow of the story that it felt like litteral injections of "hey, NOW things happen" and then back to complete boredom, almost two different stories happening at once. Consequences for this approach are the many MANY corners the author has to cut in order to create the scenes where "things happen", bypassing not only knowledge from experts of the field who should know better, but even standard common sense.
For example everything to do with Whitehorn trying to kidnap Morgan is absolutely insane. He did litterally everything in reverse, the FIRST thing to do is kill Draven, scratch that, THE ONLY THING he needed to do was the LAST ONE he did. He doesn’t need to gag and bind Morgan, nor to kill the horse nor anything else. All he had to do was poison Draven's dinner and kill him. But no, the author wanted to hammer home how bad this dude was and couldnt think of a way for Morgan to SEE all of this (because of course if he tried to kill Draven first he would get killed and Morgan would wake up to a dead Whitehorn), so she invented sudden brain rot on this supposed experienced soldier's part.
Another example:
What is a lone horse going to run away from? It will die chased by the wolves. Anyone would think that OF COURSE the predators will follow the breakaway rather than the armed and organized 'pack' of humans. So why did we do this? Sowe could show Morgan cares more about the horses than her companion's lives? To have Lancelet come in a minute late as the knight-to-the-rescue on a horse?
As far as characters go, Morgan is quite contraddictory: she is supposedly been beaten for quite a long time, causing her to cower in the face of a strong man, yet that only lasts as long as she's in Camelot, completely turning on that notion as soon as she's on the horse.
For example in the city she's like:
Full on Stockholm, huh? Thought understandable given her trauma.
But once she's out:
First, cringe, second, that's not the same person as the one who endured twenty years of domestic abuse and sexual assault by telling herself she needed to be complacent. The author tries to have her cake and eat it too, either she's bitter or she's willing to bend and blame herself, can't have it both ways.
Author seems to have the incorrect assumption that any hunter of any animal specie in the entire history of existence has ever been honorable to it's prey. (We) They ALWAYS abuse their advantage, be it size, speed, surprise, control of natural resources, intelligence (be it teamwork or manipulation) or weaponry. Regardless, she's now argumentative and ready for confrontation with someone she should be afraid of (i'm not talking about Draven)
For a good half of the story she seems to dislike her Fae traits:
Wrong, the correct response is "she was taking the potion too, so she MIGHT have weird features too" but since we have a specific goal for this scene we disregard basic logic. But Regardless of her poor choice of argument, she just...sees she's beautiful i guess? And just decides to never think about how she's clearly half Fae for the rest of the story. Like, after the marks on her body show up the thing is never mentioned again, it seems the author quite litterally forgot that was a hangup for her.
Ah she, AT FIRST, seems to understand politics
Okay so you CAN think like a proper ruler, good for you, if you listen to your "friend" here, the two enemy kingdoms (and probably the one who was supposed to help Cameloth too) will likely descend on your people sacking your towns for war reparations and creating decades worth of torment. I know the story treats Lancelet's comment as a valid position, but EXPECIALLY since she's from the nobility AND the military, she should know all this will happen. Get that traitorous snake out of your kingdom.
But then...
I retract my previous statements, stay away from the crown.
I don’t know if this is a problem with action scenes or the author just forgot to inform us when she decided to completely flip Morgan's character. She's so unbothered by everything going around her, like come on, a thousand Harpies (who came out of nowhere) are circling you, you're a month and a half ride from home (a home you've NEVER left) in an inhabited ghost town in the middle of nowhere and you're analyzing this as if you were reading of the situation through the pages of a book. For fuck's sake you should be terrified, panicking, scrambling to run, desperately looking for a place where you and your friends can take cover, but no, none of that, imagine if we could FEEL the pressure and danger of the moment. Would be unplesant.
Lastly on her, the Romance
You clearly never wanted anything before in your life if that's the guy you're supposedly in love with. Cause saying that won’t make it true, you gotta show me. It's not even properly clarified if Vesper was really making her feel all of that with magic, sure he seems truthful enough when he says he can only boost things she was already feeling, but it's never clarified to what extent, like, would she have still wanted him or did his magic make 90% of the work and she was only saying "oh this guy is handsome"? We shall never know. Why is this a problem? It detracts further from what little there was of her character (no, "don't kill children and animals" or "i like to dance when there's a city wide party and i'm drunk" aren't character traits).
But of course we all know why poor Vesper got cockblocked time and time again:
Yeah, "somehow". Just incredible. Author litterally saying "well we all know they're gonna be together so let's not even pretend there's a story here". Morgan likes Draven because...uh, he's...nice to children and animals, and he's hot. And HE likes her because...she's hot (probably)...and he has a thing for gray hair? Or captive princesses.
Speaking of him: Draven is...hum...resourceful? Uh...ahem...he's liked by animals? He doesn't like clearly innocent teenagers being executed by the king who hired him? He likes when her hair is loose? He...hum, he lets Morgan have a fling with Vesper even thought he thinks he's not good for her, and possibly likes her already?
Author here explaining her take on the situation with all the subdlety of a sonic boom, i expect Draven somewhere in this serie to say "i respect women and i think they are equal to men" or something.
BOTH of Morgan's friends are quite litterally ejected from the story, since one of them litterally failed to show up the last time she was in the kingdom and the other one showed up just to walk away from her friend to fuck a random stranger (then gets dragged off screen by monsters so the bad guy could be a bad guy). Jeez i wonder why Morgan didn't think of either of you when she saw someone had beaten up the guy who assaulted her
What the fuck? She's making YOU apologize? As of she wasn’t the one who left you to fuck a random stranger the last day you were in town?
Regarding bad guys:
Orcade is set up for the next books
Yes, we should definitely be listening to fae guardians of Godness-made legendary swords when they tell us "just don’t think about it" right after she said we were rescuing her.
Yeah, let's not question this supposed princess whose first thought is war, rather than her own people. We're here to STOP a war, remember?
Also, what was Orcade's plan? I assume she couldn't just get Excalibur herself, so she had to wait for Morgan to unsheat it to then take it herself...but couldn't do that without her getting out of the lake...maybe? But she still waited for all the drama with Vesper to unfold...let's say she was always going to take it and didn't see any reason to show herself before, wasn't she thankful to Morgan? So why didn't she save her? But if that was all a rouse, why did she gift Morgan with memories of her mother? Like, why not just walk away?
Arthur COULD become interesting, but he won't of course, look how he handles easy opportunities at manipulation (or the approach regarding his relationship with Morgan i will talk about later):
Well, no actually, he phrased it wrong but he's right, what he SHOULD have said is "we're BOTH getting into arranged political marriages" as he JUST SAID, so even if you were the queen, you'd still get a prince consort or king (whatever name you prefer) for political gain, not for love, just like Arthur is going to marry a princess from Lyonesse.
It's always the easy "he's a badman"
Exposition is quite litterally the worst part of this book. For real, this book fails to have any thoughts about how information is presented, rather, it actively AVOIDS doing the smart thing and relay informations in an interactive, entertaining or clever way: it's either Draven saying "I read this in a book", a character just sitting us down and explaining a whole story, or Morgan just thinking about something:
Handled with the grace of an elephant on a monocycle. We couldn't have dialogue with her narrating this, we couldn't explain it through a conversation between Morgan and Arthur, you know, giving multiple prospectives, taking things with a grain of salt since it comes from someone narrating a series of events, maybe Arthur saw it in a different light, who knows. Nono, we just HAD to stop this boring ass hiking trip to get to and EVEN SLOWER pace completely stopping the story and having Morgan reminescing about her past narrating things in her own head. This does NOT ONLY completely stop the story, but it also loses opportunities to strenghten her weak weak bond with Draven, wastes time since it will have to be narrated to him at some point AND it loses any value for nuance, like, i don't know, MAYBE a child being beat up by their parents wouldn't think of it like a normal adult, MAYBE they would blame themselves for it, MAYBE they think they deserved it since that's the only example of parenting they have, like, they think that's how it's supposed to be (and that's why so many abuse victims turn into perpetrators), MAYBE we could create a bond with a certain character who desperately needs brownie points, by habing said character help her process her feelings about it. BUT NO, she, as a five years old, already knew everything, it doesn't have any long lasting effects, she's essentially fine and it's all backstory. Ew.
It's so ironic that the author doesn't understand how saying shit like this has the opposite effect of what she is trying to make one feel. Someone in this situations WILL NOT narrate things in this fashion. They will say "I should have interveened before, i should have prevented it, Arthur was my brother, maybe if i stopped it, if i had protected him, he wouldn’t have come out the way he did" and gather huge amounts of respect and simpathy for it. BUT NO, we HAVE to hit the reader over the head with how good and powerful and strong Morgan is WHILE SHE IS TELLING US SO.
Imagine this was treated with any modicum of restrain or nuance: we could smooth A LOT of interactions with it, for example, let's take said scene and re-write it with character interactions in mind:
Let's say it WASN'T Arthur getting beaten and Morgan saving him, then Arthur hating her for no reason, let's say Morgan did something bad, so her father was punishing her even harder than the normal beatings, like actually trying to kill her, and Arthur had to make a choice between his father and his sister, so he killed Uther BUT was angry at Morgan for forcing his hand, since now they don't have a father and he's going to be crowned king at 15 or something, with the burden of two siblings on top of the rest of the kingdom, all because his sister did something that was specifically forbidden. And WHAT was that exactly? Well...what is Morgan now? Well she takes the potion devotely. And what did her father hate so much? And Arthur too for that matter? Fae.
So maybe she tried to fake taking the potion? After all she was young so taking every other day something that hurts you is a prime target for teenage contrarianism. So she didn't take the potion, something happened, like someone started to see her fae traits, Uther got REALLY mad and started beating her to almost death, Arthur saved her BUT things were never the same between them since he blames her for doing something that forced him to kill his dad, maybe we can go one step further and link this to Morgan's tendency to forego love relationships and say she didn't take the potion because she had a lover she was meeting in secret that night and wanted to be at her best for him, or maybe she wanted to impress him with her fae traits. Come on the story literally writes itself if you read your characters. AND we can narrate this during a bonding scene with Draven rather than explaining this to the reader, to then having to explain it AGAIN to Draven down the line.
Themes are not explored yet.
For example the World is a bit strange:
Lancelet and I walked back to the wooden block of rooms that served as both change rooms and equipment storage for female knights. There were fewer and fewer of them since my brother began his rule–just one of many foul symptoms of his reign
It seems that because of Arthur's reign, women and girls are just now being oppressed, while they usually enjoyed more freedoms, meaning....the previous king, HER ABUSIVE MURDERER DAD, was actually a feminist, yay.
And of course The Three are all women, despite the socety being patriarcal, since we don't know how religion is used to influence socety, clearly. Why would the three Godnesses entrust men rather than women with leading socety? Well who knows. And why the fuck is the godness of fate and destiny completely ignored? You'd think it's rather important, but no.
Regarding the politic's side of it, i honestly think there's a good story to be told on Arthur's side and we were stuck following the wrong sibling. Like, how did Arthur weave his way into the alliance against Lyonesse, to then be confronted with two kingdoms instead, without his ally reign AND with civil unrest? That seems like a story worth telling, not glorified "my summer-camp love triangle" (it HAS to be REALLY hot in this continent since the men sleep in the fucking open for a month and a half so...)
Plot is divided into a much too long prologue in which we see essentially one interaction with every member of the cast, with VERY little to say for any of them, then a second part with a dead snail pace journey that wasted every opportunity to create character interacions and growth and decided for the matter-of-fact easy approach every single time. It had so little to say for it's impressive lenght and the scenes where we were supposed to progress characters were so dislocated from the normal flow of the story that it felt like litteral injections of "hey, NOW things happen" and then back to complete boredom, almost two different stories happening at once. Consequences for this approach are the many MANY corners the author has to cut in order to create the scenes where "things happen", bypassing not only knowledge from experts of the field who should know better, but even standard common sense.
For example everything to do with Whitehorn trying to kidnap Morgan is absolutely insane. He did litterally everything in reverse, the FIRST thing to do is kill Draven, scratch that, THE ONLY THING he needed to do was the LAST ONE he did. He doesn’t need to gag and bind Morgan, nor to kill the horse nor anything else. All he had to do was poison Draven's dinner and kill him. But no, the author wanted to hammer home how bad this dude was and couldnt think of a way for Morgan to SEE all of this (because of course if he tried to kill Draven first he would get killed and Morgan would wake up to a dead Whitehorn), so she invented sudden brain rot on this supposed experienced soldier's part.
Another example:
When I reached her side, I grabbed my bow, then untethered her and slapped her side, sending her whinnying and racing away from the campsite.
What is a lone horse going to run away from? It will die chased by the wolves. Anyone would think that OF COURSE the predators will follow the breakaway rather than the armed and organized 'pack' of humans. So why did we do this? Sowe could show Morgan cares more about the horses than her companion's lives? To have Lancelet come in a minute late as the knight-to-the-rescue on a horse?
As far as characters go, Morgan is quite contraddictory: she is supposedly been beaten for quite a long time, causing her to cower in the face of a strong man, yet that only lasts as long as she's in Camelot, completely turning on that notion as soon as she's on the horse.
For example in the city she's like:
“Those three men may have had families, children. I believe they were simply desperate to gain your ear, Arthur, and they saw me as a tool to do so. They wouldn’t have hurt me."
Full on Stockholm, huh? Thought understandable given her trauma.
But once she's out:
“Everywhere I go, my hair tells the story of what I am. That my father believed me unworthy to sit on the throne and only fit to serve in the temple as reparation for whatever sin had been committed that caused me to be born this way.”
First, cringe, second, that's not the same person as the one who endured twenty years of domestic abuse and sexual assault by telling herself she needed to be complacent. The author tries to have her cake and eat it too, either she's bitter or she's willing to bend and blame herself, can't have it both ways.
"She’s right. You’re not a hunter. You’re a spineless butcher.”
Author seems to have the incorrect assumption that any hunter of any animal specie in the entire history of existence has ever been honorable to it's prey. (We) They ALWAYS abuse their advantage, be it size, speed, surprise, control of natural resources, intelligence (be it teamwork or manipulation) or weaponry. Regardless, she's now argumentative and ready for confrontation with someone she should be afraid of (i'm not talking about Draven)
For a good half of the story she seems to dislike her Fae traits:
He shrugged. “What did your mother look like?” I stared at him.
“She was beautiful. Golden hair.”
“Well, then. That doesn’t seem so bad.”
“You do realize I was not permitted to take the throne because of my tainted bloodline"
Wrong, the correct response is "she was taking the potion too, so she MIGHT have weird features too" but since we have a specific goal for this scene we disregard basic logic. But Regardless of her poor choice of argument, she just...sees she's beautiful i guess? And just decides to never think about how she's clearly half Fae for the rest of the story. Like, after the marks on her body show up the thing is never mentioned again, it seems the author quite litterally forgot that was a hangup for her.
Ah she, AT FIRST, seems to understand politics
“You’d think she might want Arthur to have the sword,” I said thoughtfully. “Wouldn’t that end the war? Help us win?”
Lancelet’s face was horrified. “Is that what you want, Morgan? For us to dominate Lyonesse? And Tintagel?”
“No, of course not,” I said hotly. “But what’s the alternative? Arthur has gotten Pendrath into a terrible position. I don’t wish for our people to suffer either.”
Okay so you CAN think like a proper ruler, good for you, if you listen to your "friend" here, the two enemy kingdoms (and probably the one who was supposed to help Cameloth too) will likely descend on your people sacking your towns for war reparations and creating decades worth of torment. I know the story treats Lancelet's comment as a valid position, but EXPECIALLY since she's from the nobility AND the military, she should know all this will happen. Get that traitorous snake out of your kingdom.
But then...
“You know what. I’m exhausted and I don’t think I even care right now. This sword that everyone is so obsessed with... I don’t even know if I believe it exists. I wish I were home. Right now, in Camelot, with Kaye. That’s honestly all I care about. Not a stupid fucking sword that Arthur could use to destroy the world. I don’t even want to think about that part.”
I retract my previous statements, stay away from the crown.
As he boosted Odelna higher up on his shoulder, Draven’s eyes met mine. “Get inside. Now!” he bellowed, leaning forward to slap a hand to the piebald’s hindquarters. The horse bolted forward into the cavernous entrance. An instant later I understood his concern. A dark swarm had formed overhead, thousands of wings beating in unison as they circled overhead. We clearly weren't going to win this fight, especially with a small child.
I don’t know if this is a problem with action scenes or the author just forgot to inform us when she decided to completely flip Morgan's character. She's so unbothered by everything going around her, like come on, a thousand Harpies (who came out of nowhere) are circling you, you're a month and a half ride from home (a home you've NEVER left) in an inhabited ghost town in the middle of nowhere and you're analyzing this as if you were reading of the situation through the pages of a book. For fuck's sake you should be terrified, panicking, scrambling to run, desperately looking for a place where you and your friends can take cover, but no, none of that, imagine if we could FEEL the pressure and danger of the moment. Would be unplesant.
Lastly on her, the Romance
I wanted him. More than anything I had ever wanted before.
You clearly never wanted anything before in your life if that's the guy you're supposedly in love with. Cause saying that won’t make it true, you gotta show me. It's not even properly clarified if Vesper was really making her feel all of that with magic, sure he seems truthful enough when he says he can only boost things she was already feeling, but it's never clarified to what extent, like, would she have still wanted him or did his magic make 90% of the work and she was only saying "oh this guy is handsome"? We shall never know. Why is this a problem? It detracts further from what little there was of her character (no, "don't kill children and animals" or "i like to dance when there's a city wide party and i'm drunk" aren't character traits).
But of course we all know why poor Vesper got cockblocked time and time again:
Because somehow I knew that he would never leave me.
Yeah, "somehow". Just incredible. Author litterally saying "well we all know they're gonna be together so let's not even pretend there's a story here". Morgan likes Draven because...uh, he's...nice to children and animals, and he's hot. And HE likes her because...she's hot (probably)...and he has a thing for gray hair? Or captive princesses.
Speaking of him: Draven is...hum...resourceful? Uh...ahem...he's liked by animals? He doesn't like clearly innocent teenagers being executed by the king who hired him? He likes when her hair is loose? He...hum, he lets Morgan have a fling with Vesper even thought he thinks he's not good for her, and possibly likes her already?
“You have no idea what kind of a monstrosity she’d be save for that concoction she takes each night. Why, she has the hair of a crone.”
“And that bothers you, does it, Whitehorn? You are offended by a woman’s hair color?” Draven said coldly.
Author here explaining her take on the situation with all the subdlety of a sonic boom, i expect Draven somewhere in this serie to say "i respect women and i think they are equal to men" or something.
BOTH of Morgan's friends are quite litterally ejected from the story, since one of them litterally failed to show up the last time she was in the kingdom and the other one showed up just to walk away from her friend to fuck a random stranger (then gets dragged off screen by monsters so the bad guy could be a bad guy). Jeez i wonder why Morgan didn't think of either of you when she saw someone had beaten up the guy who assaulted her
“The night you suddenly vanished? Without even saying goodbye? How could I forget?” Her voice was dry.
What the fuck? She's making YOU apologize? As of she wasn’t the one who left you to fuck a random stranger the last day you were in town?
Regarding bad guys:
Orcade is set up for the next books
“Oh, ignore that stupid thing,” the fae woman called. “A foolish rhyme, written long before you were born. Take the sword. Nothing will not harm you, I swear it.”
Yes, we should definitely be listening to fae guardians of Godness-made legendary swords when they tell us "just don’t think about it" right after she said we were rescuing her.
“Time to go. I have my own war to wage, you see. My enemies have slumbered in peace for far too long."
Yeah, let's not question this supposed princess whose first thought is war, rather than her own people. We're here to STOP a war, remember?
Also, what was Orcade's plan? I assume she couldn't just get Excalibur herself, so she had to wait for Morgan to unsheat it to then take it herself...but couldn't do that without her getting out of the lake...maybe? But she still waited for all the drama with Vesper to unfold...let's say she was always going to take it and didn't see any reason to show herself before, wasn't she thankful to Morgan? So why didn't she save her? But if that was all a rouse, why did she gift Morgan with memories of her mother? Like, why not just walk away?
Arthur COULD become interesting, but he won't of course, look how he handles easy opportunities at manipulation (or the approach regarding his relationship with Morgan i will talk about later):
“A political marriage, of course.” Arthur seemed surprised that I had to ask. “Is that not what is done with most daughters of noble blood?”
Not when the daughter was the eldest in a monarchy that had traditionally permitted sons or daughters to inherit the throne.
But in my case...
Well, no actually, he phrased it wrong but he's right, what he SHOULD have said is "we're BOTH getting into arranged political marriages" as he JUST SAID, so even if you were the queen, you'd still get a prince consort or king (whatever name you prefer) for political gain, not for love, just like Arthur is going to marry a princess from Lyonesse.
It's always the easy "he's a badman"
Exposition is quite litterally the worst part of this book. For real, this book fails to have any thoughts about how information is presented, rather, it actively AVOIDS doing the smart thing and relay informations in an interactive, entertaining or clever way: it's either Draven saying "I read this in a book", a character just sitting us down and explaining a whole story, or Morgan just thinking about something:
Like a particular brand of men all too often do, he turned that fury onto his children.
Handled with the grace of an elephant on a monocycle. We couldn't have dialogue with her narrating this, we couldn't explain it through a conversation between Morgan and Arthur, you know, giving multiple prospectives, taking things with a grain of salt since it comes from someone narrating a series of events, maybe Arthur saw it in a different light, who knows. Nono, we just HAD to stop this boring ass hiking trip to get to and EVEN SLOWER pace completely stopping the story and having Morgan reminescing about her past narrating things in her own head. This does NOT ONLY completely stop the story, but it also loses opportunities to strenghten her weak weak bond with Draven, wastes time since it will have to be narrated to him at some point AND it loses any value for nuance, like, i don't know, MAYBE a child being beat up by their parents wouldn't think of it like a normal adult, MAYBE they would blame themselves for it, MAYBE they think they deserved it since that's the only example of parenting they have, like, they think that's how it's supposed to be (and that's why so many abuse victims turn into perpetrators), MAYBE we could create a bond with a certain character who desperately needs brownie points, by habing said character help her process her feelings about it. BUT NO, she, as a five years old, already knew everything, it doesn't have any long lasting effects, she's essentially fine and it's all backstory. Ew.
I could have let him die that day. Perhaps most other children would have.
It's so ironic that the author doesn't understand how saying shit like this has the opposite effect of what she is trying to make one feel. Someone in this situations WILL NOT narrate things in this fashion. They will say "I should have interveened before, i should have prevented it, Arthur was my brother, maybe if i stopped it, if i had protected him, he wouldn’t have come out the way he did" and gather huge amounts of respect and simpathy for it. BUT NO, we HAVE to hit the reader over the head with how good and powerful and strong Morgan is WHILE SHE IS TELLING US SO.
Imagine this was treated with any modicum of restrain or nuance: we could smooth A LOT of interactions with it, for example, let's take said scene and re-write it with character interactions in mind:
Let's say it WASN'T Arthur getting beaten and Morgan saving him, then Arthur hating her for no reason, let's say Morgan did something bad, so her father was punishing her even harder than the normal beatings, like actually trying to kill her, and Arthur had to make a choice between his father and his sister, so he killed Uther BUT was angry at Morgan for forcing his hand, since now they don't have a father and he's going to be crowned king at 15 or something, with the burden of two siblings on top of the rest of the kingdom, all because his sister did something that was specifically forbidden. And WHAT was that exactly? Well...what is Morgan now? Well she takes the potion devotely. And what did her father hate so much? And Arthur too for that matter? Fae.
So maybe she tried to fake taking the potion? After all she was young so taking every other day something that hurts you is a prime target for teenage contrarianism. So she didn't take the potion, something happened, like someone started to see her fae traits, Uther got REALLY mad and started beating her to almost death, Arthur saved her BUT things were never the same between them since he blames her for doing something that forced him to kill his dad, maybe we can go one step further and link this to Morgan's tendency to forego love relationships and say she didn't take the potion because she had a lover she was meeting in secret that night and wanted to be at her best for him, or maybe she wanted to impress him with her fae traits. Come on the story literally writes itself if you read your characters. AND we can narrate this during a bonding scene with Draven rather than explaining this to the reader, to then having to explain it AGAIN to Draven down the line.
"must you always be hiding under that hood?”
Themes are not explored yet.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 29, 2024
If you want a dark, fae re-telling of Arthurian legend in the search for Excalibur, look no further. This is the book for you. Was it the best thing to ever bless my Kindle? No. Was it a relatively fun read? Yes. I never thought I would come across a story of King Arthur and absolutely loathe Arthur himself, yet here we are.
Plot:
This book follows the journey of Morgan, a girl born to be queen, but disinherited in favor of her half-brother, Arthur, due to her tainted fae blood. The king sends her on a campaign to find Excalibur, a weapon that has for centuries eluded many who have tried to find it. She is accompanied by two very dangerous guards on this quest, Kairos Draven and Ragnar Whitehorn, and she is not sure they have orders from King Arthur to actually return to Camelot with her after all...
Characters:
I found Morgan to be extremely naive and passive throughout the story. She let a lot of things happen to her despite having training and grit to fight back, which I found a little difficult to stomach. She started out as quite the damsel in distress, but ended up with a lovely character arc in which she experienced growth in confidence and strength. She's also an undercover asshole, which I liked. Draven I loved from the get go. We all know I love a cheeky (asshole) character who loves an underdog and has a propensity for violence, but also tenderness. These two had quite a nice banter together and meshed well as main characters.
“I shouldn’t be surprised if you decided to gag me if I say something you dislike.”
“To my recollection, I’ve never gagged a woman. At least, not one who didn’t wish to be gagged.” He shot me a roguish smile.
There are, of course, some fun side characters as well. Sweet Kaye was my favorite. The endearing little brother who just wants to protect his sister❤️ And then Lancelet and Galahad are the two best friends any girl could ask for. Arthur on the other hand is a raging dickkkk.
Worldbuilding:
If a fantasy novel doesn't have great worldbuilding, then I'm not gonna recommend it. No way, no how. Queen of Roses did a phenomenal job of making me feel like I was in the world of Eskira.
Overall Thoughts:
The first few chapters, I was super into this book. I flew through the pages. Then the chapters stalled out for me for quite a bit. It may have had to do with Morgan's character and how I wasn't connecting with her at first. I was having trouble getting myself to want to read. Once Morgan got out onto the road, though, things picked up for me, and I quite enjoyed her journey. The characters are great and I have high hopes that they will continue to grow as will the world in which they live. I felt like the book ended on a cliffhanger, for sure. I saw part of it coming, but not all of it. This is a worthy read imo and a series that I will continue on with as long as it continues to be fun and engaging.
“I burn for you, Morgan. You've set me aflame...”
“Then let the flames consume us.”
⭐⭐⭐/5
Plot:
This book follows the journey of Morgan, a girl born to be queen, but disinherited in favor of her half-brother, Arthur, due to her tainted fae blood. The king sends her on a campaign to find Excalibur, a weapon that has for centuries eluded many who have tried to find it. She is accompanied by two very dangerous guards on this quest, Kairos Draven and Ragnar Whitehorn, and she is not sure they have orders from King Arthur to actually return to Camelot with her after all...
Characters:
I found Morgan to be extremely naive and passive throughout the story. She let a lot of things happen to her despite having training and grit to fight back, which I found a little difficult to stomach. She started out as quite the damsel in distress, but ended up with a lovely character arc in which she experienced growth in confidence and strength. She's also an undercover asshole, which I liked. Draven I loved from the get go. We all know I love a cheeky (asshole) character who loves an underdog and has a propensity for violence, but also tenderness. These two had quite a nice banter together and meshed well as main characters.
“I shouldn’t be surprised if you decided to gag me if I say something you dislike.”
“To my recollection, I’ve never gagged a woman. At least, not one who didn’t wish to be gagged.” He shot me a roguish smile.
There are, of course, some fun side characters as well. Sweet Kaye was my favorite. The endearing little brother who just wants to protect his sister❤️ And then Lancelet and Galahad are the two best friends any girl could ask for. Arthur on the other hand is a raging dickkkk.
Worldbuilding:
If a fantasy novel doesn't have great worldbuilding, then I'm not gonna recommend it. No way, no how. Queen of Roses did a phenomenal job of making me feel like I was in the world of Eskira.
Overall Thoughts:
The first few chapters, I was super into this book. I flew through the pages. Then the chapters stalled out for me for quite a bit. It may have had to do with Morgan's character and how I wasn't connecting with her at first. I was having trouble getting myself to want to read. Once Morgan got out onto the road, though, things picked up for me, and I quite enjoyed her journey. The characters are great and I have high hopes that they will continue to grow as will the world in which they live. I felt like the book ended on a cliffhanger, for sure. I saw part of it coming, but not all of it. This is a worthy read imo and a series that I will continue on with as long as it continues to be fun and engaging.
“I burn for you, Morgan. You've set me aflame...”
“Then let the flames consume us.”
⭐⭐⭐/5
April 23, 2023
3.5⭐️ I enjoyed this, I really did. It was fast paced, I liked where the plot was going and I thought the characters were decent.
Some things were a little predictable which is fine, it was still an enjoyable read. One critique would be that some more development was needed between the two MCs. But considering how it ended, I’m guessing it was setting up for that in book 2.
Big from blood and ash vibes (but with fae), some elements of King Arthur, is on kindle unlimited. Would recommend 💫
Some things were a little predictable which is fine, it was still an enjoyable read. One critique would be that some more development was needed between the two MCs. But considering how it ended, I’m guessing it was setting up for that in book 2.
Big from blood and ash vibes (but with fae), some elements of King Arthur, is on kindle unlimited. Would recommend 💫
August 24, 2023
I’m sorry but some stuff your kindle day hot stinking garbage frfr
April 16, 2023
Camelot with a fae twist
WOWOW!!! What a fantastic debut novel from Briar Boleyn.
I have never read any fantasy retellings of Camelot, King Arthur, and Excalibur so I was SUPER excited to get my hands on this one.
What I loved:
🗡️ the premise
Camelot, King Arthur, Lancelot, Galahad, Morgan Le Fay, and Excalibur with some gender twists… and why not make them FAE
🗡️the world building and magic and lore
super original lore alongside a great story and very natural world building with some awesome magic
🗡️ nail-biting, stomach-dropping, fear-inducing, heart-pounding action and plot twists
🗡️spice 🌶️
The romance was slooooow burn and honestly it kinda took me by surprise (IYKYK) but it picked up nicely a little over halfway through and she set it up to be super spicy for the next book!
🗡️ good for her moments 💪🏼
Because, yes, he usually deserves it
🗡️ banter
You cant go wrong with enemies to lovers in a one-tent trope 😉
🗡️ the descriptions and imagery
I was totally transported to Camelot and all the other places along the FMC’s quest
🗡️inclusion
Tons of sexualities and races represented
🗡️ A REALLY CUTE SIDEKICK 🐯
(I need 20 exmoors delivered to my house immediately)
🤷🏻♀️ My only “criticism” is that the FMC sometimes wondered about things or didn’t see things that were fairly obvious to me. But truthfully I don’t even care. This was an amazing book and it’s getting all 5 stars.
✨ I only wish I knew more about Arthur and Camelot because I’m sure there were so many amazing connections I missed. I recognized some of the names but will have to look them all up after I finish the series!
⚠️ Trigger Warnings ⚠️
.
.
.
.
There are so many 😂
.
.
.
May contain spoilers
.
.
.
.
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- alcoholism
- domestic abuse
- watching a parent die as a child
- biases and speciesism against fae
- misogyny
- execution of a child
- death in childbirth
- insinuation of rape (none actually occurs)
- abuse and bullying
- homophobia
- murder of children (off page)
- violence and murder
- beheading
- enabling of abuse
- victim blaming
- hunting of endangered species
- physical abuse from father (on page)
- animal on animal violence
- public whipping (off page)
- hanging (off page)
- tyranny
WOWOW!!! What a fantastic debut novel from Briar Boleyn.
I have never read any fantasy retellings of Camelot, King Arthur, and Excalibur so I was SUPER excited to get my hands on this one.
What I loved:
🗡️ the premise
Camelot, King Arthur, Lancelot, Galahad, Morgan Le Fay, and Excalibur with some gender twists… and why not make them FAE
🗡️the world building and magic and lore
super original lore alongside a great story and very natural world building with some awesome magic
🗡️ nail-biting, stomach-dropping, fear-inducing, heart-pounding action and plot twists
🗡️spice 🌶️
The romance was slooooow burn and honestly it kinda took me by surprise (IYKYK) but it picked up nicely a little over halfway through and she set it up to be super spicy for the next book!
🗡️ good for her moments 💪🏼
Because, yes, he usually deserves it
🗡️ banter
You cant go wrong with enemies to lovers in a one-tent trope 😉
🗡️ the descriptions and imagery
I was totally transported to Camelot and all the other places along the FMC’s quest
🗡️inclusion
Tons of sexualities and races represented
🗡️ A REALLY CUTE SIDEKICK 🐯
(I need 20 exmoors delivered to my house immediately)
🤷🏻♀️ My only “criticism” is that the FMC sometimes wondered about things or didn’t see things that were fairly obvious to me. But truthfully I don’t even care. This was an amazing book and it’s getting all 5 stars.
✨ I only wish I knew more about Arthur and Camelot because I’m sure there were so many amazing connections I missed. I recognized some of the names but will have to look them all up after I finish the series!
⚠️ Trigger Warnings ⚠️
.
.
.
.
There are so many 😂
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May contain spoilers
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- alcoholism
- domestic abuse
- watching a parent die as a child
- biases and speciesism against fae
- misogyny
- execution of a child
- death in childbirth
- insinuation of rape (none actually occurs)
- abuse and bullying
- homophobia
- murder of children (off page)
- violence and murder
- beheading
- enabling of abuse
- victim blaming
- hunting of endangered species
- physical abuse from father (on page)
- animal on animal violence
- public whipping (off page)
- hanging (off page)
- tyranny
March 11, 2024
Extremely descriptive. To the point of hindering the storyline and causing boredom.
December 2, 2023
Queen of Roses (Blood of a Fae Book One) by Briar Boleyn
This is an ARC ebook, provided in exchange for an honest review. Big thank you to Netgalley, Starwater Press, and author, Briar Boleyn!
Book Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Spice Rating: 🌶️/5
If you’re looking for a SLOW burn, dark romantasy, with “touch her and you die” vibes and major plot twists- look no further! Queen of Roses is an Arthurian retelling with fae and other fantastical beasts, loads of banter, found family, and major world building.
What I Enjoyed:
-The author puts such a focus on world building and history for the story for the first 50% of the book
-The Exmoor
-Draven (aka new book bf)
-The ending! I RAN to Book Two!
-The supporting characters are interesting and relevant to the plot
What I Didn’t:
-I’m a big fan of slow burn, but this was TURTLE PACE slow burn. Hoping for more of the Draven/Morgan bond in the next book!
-The beginning of the book leaves you going into the second half with a lot of questions. There were several times when I stopped and made sure I didn’t skip pages because I was like, “that’s it? There’s no explanation?”
-Vesper and Florian🤢
“Whatever might have happened to you, you’re choosing to fight back. I don’t see how that’s a bad thing. All of life is a fight. There’s no point in avoiding it.”
This is an ARC ebook, provided in exchange for an honest review. Big thank you to Netgalley, Starwater Press, and author, Briar Boleyn!
Book Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Spice Rating: 🌶️/5
If you’re looking for a SLOW burn, dark romantasy, with “touch her and you die” vibes and major plot twists- look no further! Queen of Roses is an Arthurian retelling with fae and other fantastical beasts, loads of banter, found family, and major world building.
What I Enjoyed:
-The author puts such a focus on world building and history for the story for the first 50% of the book
-The Exmoor
-Draven (aka new book bf)
-The ending! I RAN to Book Two!
-The supporting characters are interesting and relevant to the plot
What I Didn’t:
-I’m a big fan of slow burn, but this was TURTLE PACE slow burn. Hoping for more of the Draven/Morgan bond in the next book!
-The beginning of the book leaves you going into the second half with a lot of questions. There were several times when I stopped and made sure I didn’t skip pages because I was like, “that’s it? There’s no explanation?”
-Vesper and Florian🤢
“Whatever might have happened to you, you’re choosing to fight back. I don’t see how that’s a bad thing. All of life is a fight. There’s no point in avoiding it.”
March 27, 2025
Wait but this was so good!! I was a little nervous reading some of the reviews but I’m SO GLAD I decided to pick it up anyways. This was impossible to put down from the very first page and I’m immediately starting book 2. I picked this up because I read the first two books of bloodwing academy, and I was super interested in the world Medra came from. I also just love Briar Boleyn’s writing style
We are getting a slowwwww burn in this which I LOVE. Even though nothing has happened between them like AT ALL, I just know Draven is the MMC. The dark, broody captain of the guard?? YUM. And then Morgan, who was supposed to be queen but got sidelined by her pos father for her fae blood. She’s quite sheltered and innocent in this book, but is definitely growing into herself. I’m super excited to start the next book and see where the story heads. This is giving me very FBAA vibes, but still in a way that it’s its own story.
HATED the introduction of Vesper though, he gave me the ick from the first second he was on page.
I’m so interested in the world and politics in this. I love the Arthurian lore mixed in with this story! After that ending, I cannot WAIT to continue and see how the world/plot grow and expand.
We are getting a slowwwww burn in this which I LOVE. Even though nothing has happened between them like AT ALL, I just know Draven is the MMC. The dark, broody captain of the guard?? YUM. And then Morgan, who was supposed to be queen but got sidelined by her pos father for her fae blood. She’s quite sheltered and innocent in this book, but is definitely growing into herself. I’m super excited to start the next book and see where the story heads. This is giving me very FBAA vibes, but still in a way that it’s its own story.
HATED the introduction of Vesper though, he gave me the ick from the first second he was on page.
I’m so interested in the world and politics in this. I love the Arthurian lore mixed in with this story! After that ending, I cannot WAIT to continue and see how the world/plot grow and expand.
May 16, 2024
Thank you so much NetGalley and Victory Editing for this ARC!!!
First of all there are some trigger warnings in this book so proceed with caution.
Queen of roses in the first book in the blood of fae series, a dark Romantasy with a loose Arthurian retelling.
In this, Arthur is a bloodthirsty king, Lancelot becomes Lancelet, a female knight. Merlin is a female priestess…
Our heroine, Morgan is set on a quest to retrieve a magical weapon, said to have been forged by the gods themselves and in her journey, she is accompanied by Kairos Draven, a newly enrolled royal guard who’s lethal and said to be cruel….
If you love the « who did this to you » trope, morally grey MMC, one tent/ horse trope then this is the perfect book for you! It truly did it for me. Plus I loved the fae version of the Arthurian legends. As we embark on the journey we also slowly discover what Morgan truly is and I’m so excited for it !
Kairos is a mysterious, secretive shadow daddy
and I feel like there’s so much more to know about him so much so that I feel he’s bound to become a new book boyfriend and I am already diving into the next book because I can’t wait to read more of them!
The only thing to complain would be Morgan’s naivety. I wish she was a stronger character and wouldn’t let other people step on her so easily but I guess that’s part of her character development so I really hope to see her stand her ground in the next books.
First of all there are some trigger warnings in this book so proceed with caution.
Queen of roses in the first book in the blood of fae series, a dark Romantasy with a loose Arthurian retelling.
In this, Arthur is a bloodthirsty king, Lancelot becomes Lancelet, a female knight. Merlin is a female priestess…
Our heroine, Morgan is set on a quest to retrieve a magical weapon, said to have been forged by the gods themselves and in her journey, she is accompanied by Kairos Draven, a newly enrolled royal guard who’s lethal and said to be cruel….
If you love the « who did this to you » trope, morally grey MMC, one tent/ horse trope then this is the perfect book for you! It truly did it for me. Plus I loved the fae version of the Arthurian legends. As we embark on the journey we also slowly discover what Morgan truly is and I’m so excited for it !
Kairos is a mysterious, secretive shadow daddy
and I feel like there’s so much more to know about him so much so that I feel he’s bound to become a new book boyfriend and I am already diving into the next book because I can’t wait to read more of them!
The only thing to complain would be Morgan’s naivety. I wish she was a stronger character and wouldn’t let other people step on her so easily but I guess that’s part of her character development so I really hope to see her stand her ground in the next books.
April 2, 2024
Queen Of Roses
“I would burn for you, Morgan. You’ve set me aflame…”
“Then let the flames consume us.”
Rating: 5 out of 5
Steam: 3 out of 5
Spice: 2 out of 5 (minor spicy but I’m feeling some bomb spice in the future 👀)
Emotional Damage: This entire book was an emotional ride. From the beginning to end. The amount of times my heart was gripped, torn, rewoven together just to be torn apart at the end yet again! I could not see what was coming here except for that final betrayal that I was screaming through my kindle trying to knock some sense into our MCs head which adds to the emotional damage.
--- “I mean that you seem perfectly suited to a life of pious martyrdom, Princess. You've made the perfect choice." ---
Game of Thrones and From Blood and Ash meets Athurian legend in dark fantasy tale by Briar Boleyn. This book was such a thrilling adventure. The constant twist and turns kept me on the edge of my seat, nose into my kindle, so far one could probably see my foundation stains on the screen from the amount of times I bopped myself on the head with it.
I never thought I would read an Arthurian fantasy where I would despise King Arthur but this was it. This was such a suspenseful work of art I just could not put it down. I think my jaw stayed glued to the floor since the first chapter because holy hell was this a ride.
Morgan Pendragon is our FMC, the eldest daughter of the King followed by her two brothers. Kaye and Arthur.
The King? Worthless trash. His constant prejudices ruined his life and led to the insanity that takes place in Queen of Roses.
--"I balk at the prospect of my sister being slaughtered like a pig in an alley. You made me look like a fool, Morgan. You made us look weak." --
Taking up Trashcans mantle we have Arthur. King Trash Arthur. I kept hoping somehow or somewhere I would get to like him but nope. He was consistently irking me just around every chapter. He was pigheaded, sick, tyrannical and downright disgusting.
Kaye.. sweet Kaye. I can't wait to see him again in book two, he is just too sweet for this world and I hope he gets out of his brothers clutches before something bad happens.
Morgan has so much strength in this book. The absolute shit she goes through and still she pushes through it like a badass. She should have been Queen. The vast differences between her and Arthur prove how much more right she was for Camelot but her father's prejudice had her disregarded and set for the Temple where Arthur became heir. The fact that after all the crap her brother put her through she still loved him. It broke my heart to see his constant rejection of her. I was so grateful that she had Kaye.
—"Stop. Is that his fucking name? Is that his fucking name on you?"—
Draven has got to be our Male lead here and I will accept no less. He was by far my favorite. Everything he said was gold and everything he does for Morgan had me melting. I was so sus of him throughout the whole book unsure of what to expect out of him but at the end he had really no competition. I am feeling the slow burn between them but when that little idiot, Vesper came in this bisch with his little lute. Girllllllllll I was screaming. The amount of times I wanted to yeet him off the pages. He was almost worse than Florian, which don't get me started on him.. he deserved worse than what he got ugh! I am just so happy our girl got back at both of them! Hopefully in book two we see some more Draven/Morgan.
"Stop taming the battlecat, she's a killing machine. Not a house pet."-
-"Says the man who snuggled beside her all night."
The ending was insane! So many cliffhangers! I have to race over to book two because I need so many answers.
Thank you NetGalley and Starwater Press for a chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review and thank you Briar Boleyn for introducing me to this amazing world you created! Can't wait for more!
“I would burn for you, Morgan. You’ve set me aflame…”
“Then let the flames consume us.”
Rating: 5 out of 5
Steam: 3 out of 5
Spice: 2 out of 5 (minor spicy but I’m feeling some bomb spice in the future 👀)
Emotional Damage: This entire book was an emotional ride. From the beginning to end. The amount of times my heart was gripped, torn, rewoven together just to be torn apart at the end yet again! I could not see what was coming here except for that final betrayal that I was screaming through my kindle trying to knock some sense into our MCs head which adds to the emotional damage.
--- “I mean that you seem perfectly suited to a life of pious martyrdom, Princess. You've made the perfect choice." ---
Game of Thrones and From Blood and Ash meets Athurian legend in dark fantasy tale by Briar Boleyn. This book was such a thrilling adventure. The constant twist and turns kept me on the edge of my seat, nose into my kindle, so far one could probably see my foundation stains on the screen from the amount of times I bopped myself on the head with it.
I never thought I would read an Arthurian fantasy where I would despise King Arthur but this was it. This was such a suspenseful work of art I just could not put it down. I think my jaw stayed glued to the floor since the first chapter because holy hell was this a ride.
Morgan Pendragon is our FMC, the eldest daughter of the King followed by her two brothers. Kaye and Arthur.
The King? Worthless trash. His constant prejudices ruined his life and led to the insanity that takes place in Queen of Roses.
--"I balk at the prospect of my sister being slaughtered like a pig in an alley. You made me look like a fool, Morgan. You made us look weak." --
Taking up Trashcans mantle we have Arthur. King Trash Arthur. I kept hoping somehow or somewhere I would get to like him but nope. He was consistently irking me just around every chapter. He was pigheaded, sick, tyrannical and downright disgusting.
Kaye.. sweet Kaye. I can't wait to see him again in book two, he is just too sweet for this world and I hope he gets out of his brothers clutches before something bad happens.
Morgan has so much strength in this book. The absolute shit she goes through and still she pushes through it like a badass. She should have been Queen. The vast differences between her and Arthur prove how much more right she was for Camelot but her father's prejudice had her disregarded and set for the Temple where Arthur became heir. The fact that after all the crap her brother put her through she still loved him. It broke my heart to see his constant rejection of her. I was so grateful that she had Kaye.
—"Stop. Is that his fucking name? Is that his fucking name on you?"—
Draven has got to be our Male lead here and I will accept no less. He was by far my favorite. Everything he said was gold and everything he does for Morgan had me melting. I was so sus of him throughout the whole book unsure of what to expect out of him but at the end he had really no competition. I am feeling the slow burn between them but when that little idiot, Vesper came in this bisch with his little lute. Girllllllllll I was screaming. The amount of times I wanted to yeet him off the pages. He was almost worse than Florian, which don't get me started on him.. he deserved worse than what he got ugh! I am just so happy our girl got back at both of them! Hopefully in book two we see some more Draven/Morgan.
"Stop taming the battlecat, she's a killing machine. Not a house pet."-
-"Says the man who snuggled beside her all night."
The ending was insane! So many cliffhangers! I have to race over to book two because I need so many answers.
Thank you NetGalley and Starwater Press for a chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review and thank you Briar Boleyn for introducing me to this amazing world you created! Can't wait for more!
August 15, 2023
First up, huge enormous thanks to Netgalley and Briar Boleyn for giving me a copy to read this for free in exchange for an, also free, unbiased review.
I was so deeply in the mood for a romantasy that this should have been an easy five stars. But discussing what exactly went wrong here is complicated, and I don't want to be overly critical here because at the end of the day, once I got into this, I really was just swept away by the world and I absolutely devoured the last third.
I guess issue one would be the quality of the writing. At times it's wonderful. There are a couple of scenes that are a little spicy, and Briar Boleyn writes them flawlessly. There's heat and tension and everything you'd want. Likewise, action scenes are genuinely scary. Without spoilers, the penultimate battle genuinely made my skin crawl, and I'm not entirely sure I was breathing properly until it was done. And then at other times we get this:
I thought of something. "Draven, how do you know where to go?" [...]
He turned back with a frown, then patted the pocket of his trousers. "I have a map."
"Oh. Yes, that makes sense," I mumbled.
"A map of the location of a god-made treasure? Does it?" Vesper pursed his lips into a thin line.
I scowled. "On second thought, when you put it that way."
It was frustrating. Our heroine, Morgan is (as demonstrated) occasionally so stupid that it is almost jarring, while the rest of the novel is populated by a variety of cardboard cut-outs who serve a function in getting the plot from one scene to the next. And let's not talk about the clichés. Really, let's not. There is legitimately a scene where two characters are making out,l and they are suddenly interrupted by a noise. The girl gasps and goes "What was that?" I then had to put the book down to stare out a window for a bit and come to terms with the fact that someone actually wrote that and (presumably) thought it was original.
Similarly original, there are a lot of Arthurian names for places and characters used, but I completely failed to find any references to the tales outside of that, which felt like a waste. Frustrating is really the best word for it. There's potential here, and Briar Boleyn is clearly a talented writer, but I do feel like maybe this could have gone through another draft.
I was so deeply in the mood for a romantasy that this should have been an easy five stars. But discussing what exactly went wrong here is complicated, and I don't want to be overly critical here because at the end of the day, once I got into this, I really was just swept away by the world and I absolutely devoured the last third.
I guess issue one would be the quality of the writing. At times it's wonderful. There are a couple of scenes that are a little spicy, and Briar Boleyn writes them flawlessly. There's heat and tension and everything you'd want. Likewise, action scenes are genuinely scary. Without spoilers, the penultimate battle genuinely made my skin crawl, and I'm not entirely sure I was breathing properly until it was done. And then at other times we get this:
I thought of something. "Draven, how do you know where to go?" [...]
He turned back with a frown, then patted the pocket of his trousers. "I have a map."
"Oh. Yes, that makes sense," I mumbled.
"A map of the location of a god-made treasure? Does it?" Vesper pursed his lips into a thin line.
I scowled. "On second thought, when you put it that way."
It was frustrating. Our heroine, Morgan is (as demonstrated) occasionally so stupid that it is almost jarring, while the rest of the novel is populated by a variety of cardboard cut-outs who serve a function in getting the plot from one scene to the next. And let's not talk about the clichés. Really, let's not. There is legitimately a scene where two characters are making out,l and they are suddenly interrupted by a noise. The girl gasps and goes "What was that?" I then had to put the book down to stare out a window for a bit and come to terms with the fact that someone actually wrote that and (presumably) thought it was original.
Similarly original, there are a lot of Arthurian names for places and characters used, but I completely failed to find any references to the tales outside of that, which felt like a waste. Frustrating is really the best word for it. There's potential here, and Briar Boleyn is clearly a talented writer, but I do feel like maybe this could have gone through another draft.
August 24, 2023
Rating 4/5
Spice 1.5/5
I really enjoyed this book. I think I enjoyed the world-building and plot a lot more than the romance aspect. This is definitely a slow burn for anyone who is wondering. I think for this book it completely worked out! It is definitely giving me From Blood and Ash vibes and I really enjoy that!
I believe the world-building was done very well in this book. There was enough information given to the reader for us to understand, but at the same time still left us with many questions. There is still so much I can’t wait to find out. Of course the main thing is definitely the fae and all things surrounding them. Not to mention, all of the gods and goddesses and how they play a role. I think adding the pieces from the Arthurian tale was very interesting. Even with all those bits taken from the story, it was done in such a way that it wasn’t super obvious or “in your face”.
I throughly enjoyed our main character, Morgan. I think she had a lot of character development in this story, but am afraid she is still too trusting. Of course this could change now in the second book. I understand how naive she is, considering she has been kept in the dark about most things in the world, including the lengths her own brother would go to. He’s truly a deranged man. As for Draven, I super stoked to find out more about him in the second book. It’s crazy that we still know so little about him, but I still love him as a character.
I am excited to pick up the next book in the series. My only fear is that I find myself getting Betrayal type vibes from the ending of this book and that’s always been one of my least liked tropes. I’m definitely willing to give it a chance though!
Spice 1.5/5
I really enjoyed this book. I think I enjoyed the world-building and plot a lot more than the romance aspect. This is definitely a slow burn for anyone who is wondering. I think for this book it completely worked out! It is definitely giving me From Blood and Ash vibes and I really enjoy that!
I believe the world-building was done very well in this book. There was enough information given to the reader for us to understand, but at the same time still left us with many questions. There is still so much I can’t wait to find out. Of course the main thing is definitely the fae and all things surrounding them. Not to mention, all of the gods and goddesses and how they play a role. I think adding the pieces from the Arthurian tale was very interesting. Even with all those bits taken from the story, it was done in such a way that it wasn’t super obvious or “in your face”.
I throughly enjoyed our main character, Morgan. I think she had a lot of character development in this story, but am afraid she is still too trusting. Of course this could change now in the second book. I understand how naive she is, considering she has been kept in the dark about most things in the world, including the lengths her own brother would go to. He’s truly a deranged man. As for Draven, I super stoked to find out more about him in the second book. It’s crazy that we still know so little about him, but I still love him as a character.
I am excited to pick up the next book in the series. My only fear is that I find myself getting Betrayal type vibes from the ending of this book and that’s always been one of my least liked tropes. I’m definitely willing to give it a chance though!
April 17, 2024
Wow, this story concept really drew me in! Fae and Camelot worlds coming together? Such a cool concept! The pacing and storyline of the book was great, characters clearly have arcs you are invested in, and the ending! Cannot wait to read the next book in the series!
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!
June 12, 2023
It’s like the La Croix of storytelling. You can tell what flavor the author was going for, but every sip is just nonsensical fluff that’s only satisfying when it’s over.
I don’t know who’s more of a non-practicing intellectual, the FMC or me for confusing optimism for masochism continuing to read after in the first 30% of the book she eagerly follows a man into a dark alley, drinks an open container that tastes funny after her door is left ajar, and is so aggressively abused that the perpetrator carves his name into her, incriminating himself, to which she says nothing to no one about it.
This is all while wading through incessant exhaustive repetitive dialogue including but not limited to the extensive theology and politics without any action or excitement as an incentive to learn these things at all.
The brooding “who hurt you” character is brought in and then handled in such a haphazard way that the trope loses the intended effect until it gets bludgeoned to death by adding a different love interest entirely.
It even takes over halfway through the book for there to even be forced proximity of which the FMC is shocked it will be with the brooding MMC after a lengthy conversation building up to it like it’s a surprise, as if that’s not why we’re still suffering through being pulled along on the thin thread of hope that at least that will be worth it. It’s not.
The magic? Just absolutely infuriating. The way so much detail is put into something like what a plaza looks like that they’re only passing through once but an integral part of the character development is written as if a vague second thought whispered on the wind.
I can’t even get into the fae children massacre where the FMC admires how adeptly the MMC decapitates the children.
I just kept thinking it couldn’t get worse, and kept being proven wrong.
I don’t know who’s more of a non-practicing intellectual, the FMC or me for confusing optimism for masochism continuing to read after in the first 30% of the book she eagerly follows a man into a dark alley, drinks an open container that tastes funny after her door is left ajar, and is so aggressively abused that the perpetrator carves his name into her, incriminating himself, to which she says nothing to no one about it.
This is all while wading through incessant exhaustive repetitive dialogue including but not limited to the extensive theology and politics without any action or excitement as an incentive to learn these things at all.
The brooding “who hurt you” character is brought in and then handled in such a haphazard way that the trope loses the intended effect until it gets bludgeoned to death by adding a different love interest entirely.
It even takes over halfway through the book for there to even be forced proximity of which the FMC is shocked it will be with the brooding MMC after a lengthy conversation building up to it like it’s a surprise, as if that’s not why we’re still suffering through being pulled along on the thin thread of hope that at least that will be worth it. It’s not.
The magic? Just absolutely infuriating. The way so much detail is put into something like what a plaza looks like that they’re only passing through once but an integral part of the character development is written as if a vague second thought whispered on the wind.
I can’t even get into the fae children massacre where the FMC admires how adeptly the MMC decapitates the children.
I just kept thinking it couldn’t get worse, and kept being proven wrong.
August 31, 2023
This book caught me at just the right time in just the right mood and I read it almost straight through. A very different retelling of King Arthur’s court with a fae mash up. So glad I have the sequel ready to go. Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book.
February 23, 2025
DNF @ 70%
the lack of plot made this difficult to get through
the lack of plot made this difficult to get through
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